Puducherry and Tamil Nadu, and Tripura were not ready to teach Hindi, and Hindi-speaking states did not include any south Indian language.

NEW DELHI: Amid the debate over English in the Civil Services Examination, the Union home ministry on Tuesday said the Centre's three-language formula for schools had flopped as both Hindispeaking and non-Hindi-speaking states had not put it into practice in the right spirit. "It was not properly implemented as it was meant to be implemented.

"In many of the Hindi-speaking states, Sanskrit became the third language instead of any modern Indian language, whereas the non-Hindi-speaking states like Tamil Nadu operate through a two-language formula. Some boards/institutions permit even foreign languages like Spanish, French and German in place of Hindi or Sanskrit.

Only some states accepted the three-language formula in principle. Others made some adjustments and some changed it to an extent that it became impossible to implement it," the Union home ministry said. The central government formulated the policy in 1968 with the objective of schools teaching a modern Indian language, preferably from south India, apart from Hindi and English in Hindispeaking states. In other states, the languages to be studied were Hindi, the local language and English.

The National Curriculum Framework in 2005 had extolled similar ideas to ensure children receive multilingual education from the onset as such communicative abilities needed to be promoted in a nation as diverse as India, the Union home ministry said.

The ministry added that the three-language formula was to be implemented in consultation with the states or by them. "The National Policy on Education — 1986 reiterated the need for the implementation of the three-language formula while recording the unsatisfactory implementation of the formula in some parts of the country," the Union home ministry said in its reply.